


Sugar, Spice (and Battling's Nice!)

by Mossy_Bench



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, ポケモンマスターズ | Pokemon Masters
Genre: Crushes, Extra Treat, F/F, Fluff, Minor Misunderstandings, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29249637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossy_Bench/pseuds/Mossy_Bench
Summary: Things haven't been going according to plan for Rachel today. Now, to top it all off, she's run into Bettie without having gathered all the ingredients she needs from the Palentine's Day Event. But the day still might turn around.
Relationships: Chetta | Rachel/Yui | Bettie (Pokemon Masters)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Sugar, Spice (and Battling's Nice!)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fluffybun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffybun/gifts).



> Hope you enjoy this piece of Valentine's Day cheese! I had a lot of fun writing lovestruck Rachel.

The sun was starting to set, and Rachel was glumly watching the shadows of the buildings creep longer and longer across the ground. They made Umbreon quite happy. At least one of them was. Rachel watched Umbreon hopping in and out of the shadows without really paying attention, too lost in thought to even notice the sound of footsteps.

"Hi Rachel! Is everything alright?"

Rachel looked up with a start. Bettie was standing in front of her, dark hair free from its usual ponytail. She had the handles of a paper shopping bag hooked loosely in her fingers. A pokemon Rachel had never seen with her before, a deep green Scyther, was hovering behind her shoulder.

Umbreon slunk closer to twine itself around Rachel’s legs, eying the other pokemon suspiciously.

"Uh, yeah, totally." Rachel sighed and hung her head in defeat. "No, you caught me. I have a problem, and it's, like, really embarrassing."

"I'm sure it's not that bad. How can I help?" Bettie asked, with no hesitation.

Rachel hesitated, unsure of how much to say. "My Lapras is resting at the Pokémon Center today, so I only have my Umbreon with me, but these shop-owners—" she gestured at the building behind her, festooned with red streamers "—all three have Dark-type pokemon. There's, like, no way for me to win like that."

"And let me guess, Lear can't be bothered to come battle with you," Bettie said, voice dripping with disapproval.

Rachel knew Bettie and her friends though she was just a misguided lackey who Lear was using, but she had to defend him. "No, that's not it at all!” she said, shaking her head. In fact, at this moment Lear and Sawyer were working hard on investigating a lead on the whole Hoopa fiasco, trying to locate one of Team Break’s new hideouts. But she couldn’t reveal any of that to Bettie. She tugged on her sleeves. “Uh, how do I explain...”

Bettie paused, like something had just occurred to her. With stiffer body language, and a very careful tone, she said, "Is it something you don't want him to, er, know about? Is it a special surprise?"

Rachel floundered and couldn't meet Bettie's eyes. Had she been found out? She should have known Bettie would be perceptive. Still, plausible deniability was better than nothing. "He just, like, already did me a huge favor recently,” she said hastily. “Here, I’ll explain.”

 _"A_ what _?" Lear had said._

_Rachel had taken a deep breath and put her hands on her hips before repeating herself. "A Palentine's Day celebration. I promise, everyone will love it!"_

_Lear gave her an assessing look, and Rachel tried to look as innocent and conflict-of-interest-free as possible. "Everyone, you say? And how would battling come into it? I refuse to hold any event without battling."_

_"Yeah, about that, I, like, had an idea. Trainers can get ingredients for baked sweets by challenging a store to a pokemon battle. Wouldn't that be sooo fun?" Rachel sighed dreamily. "And then, when you give a sweet to someone, they'll know you won a bunch of pokemon battles for them, and they'll be super impressed."_

_"Hmph." Lear crossed his arms. "Very well, I'll look into arranging this...'Palentine's Day' with the Pasio shopkeepers. It does sound like it'll be popular."_

_"You will?" Rachel thrust her arms into the air in celebration, sleeves flapping. "Yes! You're the best, Master Lear."_

_"Well, you do have some good ideas, sometimes," he said, in a rare show of warmth. It made Rachel feel a tiny twinge of guilt, but she focused on her excitement. She could make this work._

As Rachel finished recounting an abridged version of these past events, with a LOT of careful omissions, Bettie was nodding. "I get it now. It was really nice of Lear to make this all happen after you suggested it. He must, uh." Bettie trailed off awkwardly. "Really care about you."

Rachel winced. With Bettie in front of her, her inadequacy seemed all the more obvious now. Everyone, including Bettie, paid attention to Lear, while Rachel—she was always secondary. And she deserved it. She couldn’t even win a few pieces of chocolate. "You must think I'm so totally lame," she murmured, looking down at the tops of her black platform shoes. Umbreon had closed its eyes and curled in a warm comma-shape at her feet, so serene compared to the turmoil in her own mind that Rachel get a lump in her throat.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up, startled. Bettie had a fiery look in her eyes, at the same time familiar and an utter revelation. Her grey eyes caught the red of the shop’s streamers and the syrupy gold of the setting sun, and her eyebrows arched in determination.

Rachel could look at her forever like this.

"Not at all!" Bettie declared. "Rachel, I know how good of a battler you are. It's just not fair to fight three to one. The shop-keepers should know that." She winked, grinning. "So, let's do this! Together!"

Rachel gulped. Her heart was beating so furiously she wondered if Bettie could hear it. "O-okay. That sounds cool." She felt Umbreon rise, as if in conjunction with. Rachel’s own growing hope.

Bettie stepped back, her hand leaving Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel missed her touch immediately. "Besides, Scyther and I have been working on a few moves," she said, with a sly look towards her pokemon. "Those Dark-time pokemon won't stand a chance. Right, buddy?"

Her Scyther made a couple enthusiastic swipes in the air. Umbreon looked unimpressed. Rachel couldn't help smiling as she grabbed her things and moved to head into the shop, with Bettie right behind her.

* * *

Several minutes later, they walked out of the shop, excitement bubbling over and making them spill constant chatter. Night had fallen, so they stuck close together, planning to follow the light of the street lamps. Umbreon was leading the way.

"Your Umbreon was so _fast_ in that battle," Bettie said.

Rachel paused to put her newly won chocolate into her bag, where some of her previously gathered ingredients were already stored. "I know, right?” she said, beaming with pride.

"Oh, so you already got some other ingredients earlier?" Bettie said, peering over. "Wow, that's amazing that you got all that when you were battling alone."

Rachel almost tripped. "It's not that big of a deal," she mumbled.

"It is! It requires a completely different approach to battling. I'd be awful at it."

“I bet that’s not true.” Rachel swallowed and dared not look over. "Besides, it’s nice to battle with someone else for a change,” she said.

They walked several more paces in silence. Umbreon blended in with the evening darkness, but turned its glowing red eyes to cast Rachel an admonishing look, as if saying, _Just keep talking to her._

"And, uh, what have you got there?" Rachel said, gesturing to Bettie's bag.

"Good question! Serena and Dawn baked me some treats earlier today," Bettie said happily. "I'm saving them for later."

"Got it," Rachel said. She was somewhat confused as to whether she should be jealous or not. "It's kinda looking like I'm not going to have time to bake anything today," she said wistfully.

She knew the day had turned out well, all things considered. Battling with Bettie was exhilarating, and Rachel wouldn't trade it for anything. She was just disappointed that her original plan, to surprise Bettie with treats, hadn't worked out. After she made Master Lear go to all that trouble!

"Are you going to be okay?" Bettie said. "Well, I guess you'd know best how Lear is about gifts."

"Huh?" Rachel stopped in her tracks.

Bettie stopped too. "I thought—weren't you going to bake something for Lear?"

"For _Lear?_ " Rachel said, and was unable to stop herself from giggling. "Uh, no way. I do enough for him already. Besides, I gave him a card this morning." Rachel shook her head. "That's enough for him."

"Then who?" Bettie said. She adjusted her hat, fiddling with it longer than seemed necessary.

Rachel could feel Umbreon's eyes on her. This was not how she'd imagined it going, but it was probably her only chance for the day, the whole reason she'd wanted the Palentine's Day event to happen. It was now or never. She cleared her throat. "It was, like...going to be for you, Bettie."

She waited. The normally talkative Bettie was being unusually quiet, and it was hard to read her face in the dark. Rachel felt her palms get sweaty. Had she risked betraying Lear's trust for no reason? Then:

"If you have time tomorrow, maybe we can bake some treats together," Bettie said. She took a few tentative steps closer. The glow of the lamplights revealed the extent to which she was smiling. It was a lot.

"Yeah?" Rachel said.

Bettie leaned in, her eyes so bright and hopeful that Rachel was momentarily dazed. "I'm sure Professor Bellis won't mind lending us her lab tomorrow. The equipment there is amazing."

"That sounds really, really good." Rachel was beaming so hard her cheeks hurt. She twirled a lock of her hair. "Just, uh, maybe don't tell lotsa people yet. Lear doesn't exactly know about this. You get what I mean?"

Bettie's eyebrows rose but she nodded. "I can keep a secret," she stage-whispered, and Rachel fell just a little bit more in love.


End file.
